Overview of Mapping

This section introduces graphic map display considerations as well as information about common map projections. This section does not describe how to create a map display. See the following topic for these resources.

Creating a Map Display

IDL provides interactive and static map display functionality. You can use the iMap iTool to interactively configure a map display. If you prefer a static display, you can use map routines. See the following for details:

Interactive iMap display — see Working with Maps

Map-related routines — see Mapping

Examples of Creating Map Displays

IMAP — provides examples of displaying images and contours over a map projection.

MAP_PROJ_FORWARD — creates a latitude and longitude grid with labels for a Goodes Homolosine map projection in an Object Graphics display. Typically MAP_PROJ_INIT is used with MAP_PROJ_FORWARD and MAP_PROJ_INVERSE.

MAP_SET — establishes the coordinate conversion mechanism for mapping points on a globe's surface to points on a plane, according to the selected projections type. You can then use MAP_GRID and MAP_CONTINENTS to add grid lines and continents to the map display. See MAP_IMAGE for an example of warping an image to a projection.